West African troops have entered Gambia despite exit of former president Yahya Jammeh, who fled to Guinea Saturday night.
Troops were seen approaching Gambia’s capital, Banjul, Sunday evening.
The development it was gathered was to secure the country and allow new President Adama Barrow settle down.
There are also fears that Jammeh’s supporters – civilian and military – may be nursing a hidden agenda to forment trouble and make The Gambia ungovernable.
Residents in Barra, a town on the opposite bank of the Gambia River from Banjul, said they saw scores of soldiers massing near a ferry terminal.
“I saw a lot of them. Too many to count,” Pamadou Joof, 26, who operates a small boat, told Reuters.
“They had vehicles and a lot of guns.”
The regional operation endorsed by the United Nations was launched late on Thursday after Barrow was sworn in as president at Gambia’s embassy in neighbouring Senegal.
The operation was later halted to give Jammeh one last chance to leave peacefully.
Comments